Second Dock Icon

[Sim54]

I have recently started to notice that I have a second QS icon in my dock. It's over to the right, where apps that are not kept in the dock appear (my QS is over to the left and stays there). Quitting QS doesn't make the second icon go, and it stays with a running app dot underneath it. I have uninstalled and re installed, i have also recently upgraded to Mountain lion. Nothing works. I've checked top in terminal to try to kill it from there, but it doesn't show.

[skurfer]

One user reports that telling Quicksilver to hide it's Dock icon, restarting, then turning the Dock icon back on fixed this.

If that doesn't work, you could try manually removing Quicksilver from your Login Items, then adding it back again.

[MisterE-3]

skurfer, I did those things and while it worked on restart I have since seen 2 icons in the dock at random times. I don't seem to be able to reproduce it now, it's intermittent. When it is there it points to the one and only QS.app I have on my computer, same as the one I normally keep in my dock.

[Sim54]

Thanks for the tips, I'll check it out and let you know what happens.

[Sim54]

Ok, that seems to have worked for now. i'll keep you posted if anything else comes up. Thanks guys.

[MisterE-3]

Same problem here and it's intermittent, I can't figure out how to reproduce it. OS X 10.8.2 QS B71

[coca7]

When I follow the above suggestion about hiding the dock icon and restarting the solution works until I reboot. If I try the solution again it will work again until I reboot. Like others I noticed the issue after upgrading to OS 10.8.

[mengz0]

Lion 10.7.5. Same issue.

[brianogilvie]

Same issue here, Mountain Lion 10.8.2 on a 15" MBP with Retina display.

[MisterE-3]

OK, using the latest version of B71, there have been more than 1 B71s iirc, (3942) I unchecked keep icon in dock in the prefs and one icon disappeared. The other I went to CMD-drag out of the dock it did this hourglass effect and disappeared. I've been running this way for several days over several reboots and still no QS icon in the dock. I like it there though I will enable it today for testing. Last idea is to move QS and Dock prefs to the desktop and see if it's a prefs problem. Still running 10.8.2 on a late 2008 MB unibody.

[skurfer]

Wait, have all of you manually added the icon to the Dock at some point? That is, dragged it to a specific position so it stays there even when Quicksilver isn't running? No one has mentioned that detail. In any case, I tried doing that and rebooting and still can't get more than one Dock icon to appear. Is it only on reboot, or does logging out and back in also do it? Do you have "Reopen windows when logging back in" checked or not?

[coca7]

Skurfer, I just quit Quicksilver to attempt removing it from the dock and adding it manually. Here is the result. One dock icon disappeared and one remained. Dragging the remaining one away from the dock to delete it fails to delete it. When I right click the icon it says application not responding.

[skurfer]

I suspect it's not really there. If you relaunch the Dock, it will probably go away.

I did manage to make two Dock icons appear, but only by having two copies of the application in different locations, then adding one to the Dock manually, but telling the other to start at login. But I don't think that's what's happening here, since users have reported that "Show in Finder" reveals the same app for both icons.

[coca7]

I do recall accidentally having two copies of the application in the different locations before I deleted one. Currently I only have one copy of the application. I don't know how long ago that was, however.

[Sim54]

Hey guys, I originally posted this question, and in the end, I simply un clicked the show icon in dock button and now live without the icon. I don't miss it to be honest, QS just lives in the back ground. If it ever freeze's then I invoke Spotlight to start it up again. It's not a fix. but for me was an ok workaround.

[skurfer]

Hopefully, this conversation will go somewhere.

[MisterE-3]

This issue should still be open. A workaround (ticking the no icon in the dock pref) is not a solution.

With that said there really is no need to use the dock icon. The whole point of QS is to be able to do everything with keystrokes.

[pjrobertson]

Interesting find Rob,

So it appears to be (yet another) OS X bug, although there are some claims
it was fixed previously.
We're using kProcessTransformToForegroundApplication as well, so it seems
like it's definitely the same problem
(QSApp.m:L153)

On 28 February 2013 04:27, MisterE-3 notifications@github.com wrote:

This issue should still be open. A workaround (ticking the no icon in the
dock pref) is not a solution.

With that said there really is no need to use the dock icon. The whole
point of QS is to be able to do everything with keystrokes.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/1152#issuecomment-14216172
.

[skurfer]

We're using kProcessTransformToForegroundApplication as well

Yeah, I know. I'm working on relocating it now. Which is just stabbing in the dark since I can't reproduce the problem, but it's worth a try.

[skurfer]

Are any of you able to reproduce this at will? If so, I'd like you to try a test build to see if it fixes the problem.

[MisterE-3]

I'm trying to reproduce it but it's intermittent. Will report back when it rears it's head next time, usually after rebooting which I can't do right now.

[MisterE-3]

OK, a reboot brought it back. Send me the build.

[skurfer]

Try this out. It's essentially the same as the current B72 release, with small changes to the way the Dock icon is shown. So whether it works or not, you can keep using it until the next release. But please let us know whether or not you can recreate the two icons with this build.

http://cl.ly/1N0H0o2Q400p

[MisterE-3]

Unfortunately this build did not resolve the issue. There's still 2 icons in the dock after every reboot. I can quit QS and click on the "extra" icon at the rar right of the dock and it does this slip away animation thing, not the little white puff of smoke you normally see when you remove an icon from the dock. I can quit and restart QS multiple times and only the one icon remains but as soon as I reboot the computer the second 'ghost icon' is back.

Perhaps this is not a bug, it's a new feature in disguise. There really is no reason for there to be a dock icon. I would not miss the preference if it was not there as cntl-space is always the way I open QS.

Thanks much for your effort working on this. If you would like a System Profiler report so you can see what I have loaded and compare for commonalities with others who have this issue just let me know.

System Information: Model: MacBook (Unibody Late 2008) • CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 (2 Cores) @ 2.40 GHz • L2: 3.15 MB • Memory: 8.00 GB • Uptime: 14 Minutes • Disk Space: Total: 127.18 GB; Free: 82.47 GB • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 9400M • Screen Resolution: 1280 x 800 • Load: 40% • OS: Mac OS X 10.8.2 (Mountain Lion) (Build 12C60) Exchanged optical drive for a second HDD, boot drive is SSD.

[pjrobertson]

Thanks @MisterE-3 for all the info. A shame that method didn't work for fixing the issue.

I think I may have tracked down the problem, but as it's a 10.7+ problem, the fix is only possible for Quicksilver when it's 10.7+ only (which is soon!)

[MisterE-3]

No problemo, happy to help this fine project any way I can. Now that you menton it this problem did indeed appear when I upgraded from 10.6.8 to 10.8. I skipped 10.7 altogether.

[coca7]

I think the problem started when I upgraded to 10.8. I have also noted that I sometimes mail is also opening twice. When I have two instances of mail they are both functional, as if it launched twice.

[MisterE-3]

I haven't seen this with Mail or a similar issue with any other application since upgrading from 10.6 -> 10.8.

[shadowbottle]

This has recently started to happen to me on 10.8.2 on a MBP 5,1. I'll see if I can find log information. It's not just a superfluous icon though, it prevents me from being able to relaunch Quicksilver. Most frequently it seems to happen after rebooting from Bootcamp Windows - but that's also most frequently /why/ I'm rebooting (; I did move the icon on my dock to assign it a space there, and I have now added and removed it from my login items. I'll report back with more info when I can repro.

[skurfer]

It's not just a superfluous icon though, it prevents me from being able to relaunch Quicksilver

If you mean you can't use it immediately after launch, this is usually caused by enabling the "Hide" setting for the login item. Make sure it's off.

[shadowbottle]

It's definitely off and no I mean:

1. Force quit one of the icons
2. it quits, dot disappears I can remove this one from the dock
3. activity viewer shows no quicksilver running despite /other/ icon with dot still active
4. right clicking on THIS dot shows 'not responding' and an option to force quit which does absolutely nothing
5. try to relaunch quicksilver and nothing happens either.
6. I WAS able to "Show all windows" at which point the screen dims but brings nothing to the fore, and once I click on the screen THEN the QS dock icon with the dot disappears and I can successfully relaunch QS and use it again.

edit: I've only just recently done this trying to figure out how to get rid of it, and only done it once, just FYI.

[shadowbottle]

Still happening. Show windows did not have any effect - must have been coincidence.
The only quicksilver thing showing up in console is: "3/14/13 4:28:04.751 PM Quicksilver[1726]: An error ocurred while loading plugin "<Dictionary Module 0x1002a6e50>": Current architecture unsupported"

Going to remove the Dictionary module and hopefully that'll do it. :🤷:

[skurfer]

Are you using BezelHUD, @shadowbottle? If so, that's the problem.

[cmmp]

just a question... why is this bug closed? I'm still getting affected by this.

[skurfer]

It was closed automatically by a change I made, but in the end, this appears to be a bug in the Dock that we can't control, so it should probably remain closed.

[cmmp]

I may be completely wrong, but it seems that this is a bug in the dock caused by something quicksilver does, as it's the only app that I use which produces this behavior. In this sense, I think it should still be open.

[skurfer]

I thought so too for a while, but I saw others asking about it on the Cocoa-dev mailing list, so it's not specific to Quicksilver.

I just noticed that another possible fix for this had snuck in. Are you running 1.0.0, or the pre-release of 1.0.1?

[cmmp]

I'm running 1.0.0 (4000). It'd be great if you could try other fixes.

Thanks,
Cássio

[skurfer]

Like I said, there's a change in 1.0.1 that might fix it. If you go to Preferences → Extras and change the type of updates to "Prerelease Candidates", you can test it out and see.

[cmmp]

Thanks, I'll do that and report back.

[cmmp]

Just tried it on a machine that was exhibiting the problem. After installing 1.0.1 and restarting the machine I got a single dock icon. Logging out of my account and then back in, I get two. This most definitely smells like a bug.

[cmmp]

Ok. This bug happens consistently to me. I experimented a bit more and noticed the following. If I unmark "Show icon in dock" in the quicksilver preferences, leave it set to open at login, and manually drag the icon from applications to the dock, I get only one icon. However, right clicking that icon does not show me the usual options, it's like the application is not started (even though it's running). It's interesting, because right clicking and going to options, it's set to "Open at login".

It's like the dock icon is not recognizing that the application has started. That's why I think when you set the option "show dock icon" in quicksilver, you end up with two, it's as if the dock can't tell that both icons refer to the same process.

Rob, do you get this behavior too? Are you on 10.8.4? How are your preferences set?

Best,
Cássio

[skurfer]

It's like the dock icon is not recognizing that the application has started. That's why I think when you set the option "show dock icon" in quicksilver, you end up with two, it's as if the dock can't tell that both icons refer to the same process.

The behavior you’re seeing is normal. By hiding the Dock icon, you’re preventing Quicksilver from notifying the Dock when it's running. That's why the icon in the Dock appears “detached” from the running copy of QS.

When you enable the Dock icon and manually add Quicksilver to the Dock, it should just add the “running” indicator light to the existing icon when Quicksilver launches. For a small number of users, the Dock seems to get confused at this stage.

Rob, do you get this behavior too? Are you on 10.8.4? How are your preferences set?

I normally keep the Dock icon hidden, but I have enabled it to troubleshoot this in the past and nothing I tried would produce two icons for the same app.

The only way I've ever gotten two icons to show up was to have two copies of Quicksilver on my disk somewhere, add one to the Dock manually, and launch the other. But many, many users have confirmed that the bug you're seeing only requires one copy. (Both icons point to the same app, and restarting the Dock makes one go away.)

[cmmp]

When you enable the Dock icon and manually add Quicksilver to the Dock, it should just add the “running” indicator light to the existing icon when Quicksilver launches. For a small number of users, the Dock seems to get confused at this stage.

Yes, it does add the indicator light to both icons for me.

But many, many users have confirmed that the bug you're seeing only requires one copy. (Both icons point to the same app, and restarting the Dock makes one go away.)

That's exactly the case for me.

sudo find / -name Quicksilver -type f
/Applications/Quicksilver.app/Contents/MacOS/Quicksilver
find: /dev/fd/3: Not a directory
find: /dev/fd/4: Not a directory

and killall Dock makes only one icon appear.

This is really strange. I tried setting iterm2 and Aquamacs to open at login via right click > options > open at login, and both of them only get their single dock icon. I'm at a loss why this happens only to quicksilver.

If you have some spare time, could you try enabling the icon again to see if you can produce this behavior? I just don't see how this could happen so consistently to me and never to you.

Best,
Cássio

[skurfer]

If you have some spare time, could you try enabling the icon again to see if you can produce this behavior?

I promise I've tried. So have some of the other developers. I don't think any of us have been able to reproduce it.

[zulrath]

I have 1.0.0 (4000) of Quick Silver on Mac 10.8.4, we have two accounts with admin privileges, as far as I can tell the error only occurs if both accounts are running. If you log into the other account without logging out of the first account than Quicksilver is loading two instances on the dock.

[cmmp]

That's not my experience. This happens even on restarts, after I logged on
a single time. I also have only one account on my machine.
For the time being I have disabled the dock icon, to me it's the only work
around at the moment.

I still believe this is a bug produced as a side effect of some API call,
though I don't know which, and probably neither do the developers.

On Sun, Aug 11, 2013 at 4:03 PM, zulrath notifications@github.com wrote:

I have 1.0.0 (4000) of Quick Silver on Mac 10.8.4, we have two accounts
with admin privileges, as far as I can tell the error only occurs if both
accounts are running. If you log into the other account without logging out
of the first account than Quicksilver is loading two instances on the dock.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/1152#issuecomment-22463107
.

Cássio M. M. Pereira